Jane& Caleb: Jane and the unladylike wife
by slytherinsal
Summary: Preview chapter 1: Jane and Caleb are staying still with Major Coate and his family when a near neighbour is murdered right after they have met her at a dinner party. A mysterious woman appears to have done the deed. Jane and Caleb must find out what happened to see justice is served.


**Chapter 1**

Major Coate made a rapid physical recovery, though his despondency over his son's perfidy naturally had an effect on his well-being. Miss Bates nursed him assiduously, and being a man of stern duty, the good major was keen to be back in his place as host to his Christmas house guests.

He was at least well enough to come most mornings to breakfast, though he withdrew for a sleep in the afternoon, something he complained that he would never have ordinarily expected to do.

"You _must_ rest and recuperate properly _dear_ Major Coate!" urged Miss Bates, anxiously.

"Trust Aunt Hetty; she is quite an expert on nursing," said Jane.

"It goes against the grain," grumbled the major. "Well, if I fail to be a good host, at least we have received, as a family, an invitation to dinner on Boxing Day. Even if it is only from Mrs Steggall," he added.

"Pray tell us about her, Uncle George," asked Araminta.

"Well, I cannot like her, but there is no doubt that she is in many respects a remarkable woman," said the major. "There's something of a history there! The older Steggall boy lost his wife when his son was born, and became rather wild, and instead of supporting him, his family packed him off to India as a black sheep, baby and all. Once he had been perforce made to quieten down by such a long journey he determined to do his best to show up his family, and settled down both to make money, and to find a mother for his little boy. Maria Durrand, as she was then, came to India on one of the bride ships, having failed to take, and having reached the age of five-and-twenty, preferred to seek a John Company husband than become a governess or companion. She gave Peter Steggall two more sons and was a driving force in helping him make his fortune. They returned home with a small fortune, which Peter Steggall rubbed in his brother's and father's face by purchasing a large modern Palladian house near enough to the family home to be a permanent reminder. Not perhaps very nice, but then the family had not treated him well, and had been ready to risk the life and health of little Peter in the exigencies of the Indian climate. Indeed it was through Maria's efforts that he survived, as I understand it. The inheritance of the younger Steggall, Peter having been disinherited, was a competence rather than a fortune, and Maria, who is now a widow, enjoys holding the family purse strings."

"Dear me! I cannot think that I would wish to be so vindictive!" said Jane.

"Christopher Steggall is a great gun!" opined Nicholas Waynefleet, one of the major's nephews. "He's the youngest."

"How is it that she holds the purse strings, though?" asked Caleb, interested, "Surely the inheritance would automatically devolve on his oldest son and the closest male relative?"

"It's through the terms of the will," said Major Coate. "Steggall left his fortune divided equally between his oldest son, Peter, and the rest for the use of the widow for her lifetime, two thirds of which would pass in equal amounts to her two sons with him on her death, and the other third to be dispersed as she saw fit. He was very fair towards her, I have to say! But Peter does not come into his inheritance until he is five-and-thirty, and before that, must make do with half the interest on it as an allowance. You are wondering how I know all this," he laughed. "Well I have not been unduly nosy, it was Mark Steggall who told me, the brother of the older Mr Peter Steggall. Mark did not begrudge Maria her fortune, but he was explaining this as background because he did not like the way she encourages _his_ sons to go to her with their financial embarrassments, to which she sometimes provides largess, and sometimes does not."

"Dear me!" said Jane. "That sounds singularly whimsical!"

"Indeed," agreed George Coate, "I believe she enjoys the power of giving or withholding as she chooses, However, she is a close neighbour, and though I may abhor the way she controls her young relations, and keeps her own sons penny-pinched, I admire her business acumen, and her sons should appreciate that she is said to have increased their portion considerably by skilful investment since her widowhood."

"Yes, but they resent not having a chance to learn how to do it for themselves," put in James Waynefleet, the oldest of George Coate's nephews. "I've looked into the will on Pete's behalf, but there's nothing to say that he or his brothers might legitimately be a part of the business, and if you ask me, there's nothing to feed resentment in Pete, Aubrey and Martin like treating them as children to receive the beneficence of a clever mother, without any say in how it is gained."

"I agree," said George Coate. "I did not know you were on such good terms with the Steggall boys, James."

"I would not say I was on good terms with them, as such," said James, "but as I have trained in law, Pete preferred to ask a neighbour he had partly grown up beside rather than go to some possibly cheating lawyer from London or even Chelmsford."

"Especially Chelmsford!" laughed James' younger brother, Nicholas. "You can't trust anyone in Chelmsford!"

"Nick nearly came a cropper over a hunter he was wishful to purchase," James explained to Jane and Caleb. "It has left him sore against the integrity of all Chelmsford men."

"Well, you know what the men of Colchester say about Chelmsford men," said Nicholas.

"Yes, and they also say that Coggeshall men are so stupid that they chained up a wheelbarrow that had been bitten by a mad dog for fear of its madness," said James, hastily, "urban rivalries spawn such sayings."

Since the Waynefleet family hailed from Coggeshall, Nicholas merely scowled at being reminded of the local calumnies on his home.

"Are the Steggalls these same young men you introduced me to at the skating party, Cousin Nicholas? I think that was the name you gave for some who came," asked Araminta. "They all seemed quite pleasant young men."

"Yes, that is them," said Nicholas.

Jane winced. So did Nicholas' oldest brother.

"Nicholas, why does father bother to educate you, when you mangle grammar like that?" he asked.

Nicholas grinned.

"So that I can avoid mangling it when speaking or writing to such irritating people who care, and in any of my essays," he said cheerfully, and it may be said, unanswerably.

"These are neighbours I am sure you will dance with at local assemblies, my dear, at the Shire Hall Assembly Room in Chelmsford," said George Coate, to Araminta, ignoring the byplay between his nephews.

"Shall I? that will be fun," said Araminta, "for though most of the family are far too old to be considered as beaux, it is as well to practise dancing with people one may learn to be easy with," said Araminta.

"Why, Cousin Minty, the oldest is Peter, who is but eight and twenty!" said James.

"Well, that seems old to me," said Araminta, half apologetically. "And Mr Aubrey Steggall, as the local parson, seems to have an air of – of gravitas, despite his choice of quite fashionable garb, though I cannot like Petersham trousers," she added candidly.

"He's twenty four like Philip," said Nicholas, "Phil being his cousin, and a quiet sort of chap."

"Indeed; he hardly spoke a word to me," agreed Araminta, "and Mr Martin Steggall could speak of nothing but wanting to go into the army, which was quite tedious; and Mr Christopher Steggal spent more of his time showing off how well he could cut figures on the ice than in providing conversation."

"Why, Cousin Minty, and these are _pleasant_ in your estimation, after damning with faint praise?" laughed Nicholas.

Araminta flushed.

"Well, they were inoffensive, in any case," she said.

Major Coate laughed.

"There's nothing wrong with having high standards, Araminta," he said. "You may as well look upon all young men with such clear-sighted cynicism, my dear, you are far too young to be considering serious beaux, so approaching dances in the spirit of practising for when you come out is a sensible and healthy thing to do."

Araminta looked pleased.

"Well, I do feel rather too young for courting, but it is fun to do as normal girls do, and have fun dancing, and I do need to practise as I have only so recently learned the measures."

"You have done remarkably well, Cousin Minty," said Nicholas, "and you are no clumsier than a lot of other young girls I've danced with."

"There might have been a more tactful way to have put that, Nicholas," put in Jane, austerely.

Nicholas grinned insouciantly.

"Oh, well, Minty knows what I mean," he said.

"Indeed, I do," said Araminta. "And actually, it is quite heartening that I am, with my club foot, no _more_ clumsy than some girls with no such deformity, for I know that I am clumsy; and there is no point pretending otherwise. Yet if I know the measures well, I might yet make a good showing, since being in the right place at the right time, even with inept execution of the steps, must surely be less annoying to the other dancers in one's set then being light of foot but entirely out of place."

"A wise and well-considered summation, my dear Minty," said Jane.

"Yes, indeed!" agreed Miss Bates, "such a wise head on young shoulders, though what a silly saying that is, to be sure, for we should surely _stare_ at anyone whose head was on their shoulders not their neck, for it would look most _odd_ as well as being very difficult to turn to look at anything… dear me, I find myself quite forgetting what I had been saying!"

"You were praising Araminta for her wisdom, dear Aunt Hetty," said Jane. "You are correct, of course, that so many turns of phrase are quite strange when one stops to think about them, though the sentiment is quite right, and the meaning clear enough."

"Oh, yes, of course, I was saying how wise dear Araminta is about this!" said Miss Bates. "Why the good Major will be _quite proud_ of you, when he has adopted you, Minty!"

"I am proud of my lovely, clever and brave niece," said George Coate. He cleared his throat. "And I know you will be tolerant of Mrs Steggal, who has expressed a desire to meet you, my dear!"

Araminta and Jane both looked at him sharply. It was Jane, however, who spoke up.

"Major, do you imply that Mrs Steggall has asked questions that are not entirely courteous?" she asked with some asperity.

"Downright impertinent, as it happens," said the Major, relieved to admit it. "She wondered who was this girl I was adopting, and if I knew Araminta's antecedents. Naturally, I was quite short with her, since as I told her it would be a strange matter if I did not know my own brother and his child; and I did point out that it would not have been the business of anyone but my own family had I adopted someone who was not related to me. But I did not quite like her tone," he added.

"According to Christopher, she doubts the motives of everyone," said Nicholas. "I have no doubt that she wondered whether Minty was an imposter."

"I confess, I find myself less willing to meet someone who doubts the _bona fides_ of my family," said Araminta.

"Oh, Mrs Steggall is the same with everyone, it is not a reflection on you in particular," said George Coate, hastily. "It is one of the things I cannot like in her, you see, whilst finding in myself enough tolerance because she had to struggle to make ends meet before she married, and indeed at first when they were married; and she became used to people trying to cheat a woman on her own. Then when she became wealthy, of course, there were always people ready to try to part her from what she had worked hard to acquire."

"How sad!" said Araminta. "I am glad that I am not especially wealthy nor especially poor; being quite ordinary is so much more comfortable."


End file.
